Optimism May Be Key to Better Heart Health
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iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — If you’re one of those Gloomy Gus-types with a perpetual dark cloud hanging over your head, knock it off or all those cheery, come-what-may kind of folks will outlive you.
A University of Illinois study suggests people who maintain positive attitudes are destined for better heart health.
Lead author Rosalba Hernandez and other researchers surveyed 5,100 participants ages 45-to-84 regarding their physical health, mental health and levels of optimism. The study found that people with the sunniest outlook on life were twice as likely to have better cardiovascular health than their pessimistic counterparts.
On top of that, the most optimistic of the optimists were 76 percent more likely to have total health scores in what’s considered the ideal range.
Whether optimism predicates better health or vice versa, these people also exercised more, were less likely to smoke and also have healthier body mass indexes than those with deep cynicism about life.
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